But photographers and artists don’t really create for others, we do it for ourselves. People have opinions on everything be it food, politics or the colour of a car. The picture caused a huge outcry and Gupta was trolled mercilessly. He was the one who shot Esha Gupta in a teensy bikini a few years ago. Celebrated fashion photographer Arjun Mark laughs when he is asked about the current controversy regarding the Ranveer shoot. Pushkaran, who also sketches nudes, says his friends are his biggest supporters. I simply try to showcase more work and to the right audience,” he says, adding that Instagram guidelines are becoming ever more stringent. I try to not engage in these conversations. One is asked hundreds of questions from friends, family etc. “It’s not easy to practice nude photography in India. Kochi-based digital artist and photographer Anurag Pushkaran’s account, too, has been banned twice. I may be wrong but I feel if women stop hiding and people see more skin everywhere, it will stop being such a big deal,” she says, adding that there ought to be an outcry about the girls being forced to remove their bras before an exam rather than over an actor willingly shedding his clothes for a shoot. I like to flaunt my body and that’s my right. “I feel everyone should have the right to wear what they want. Yogarwa’s family had completely cut ties with her for two years and while her mom has almost accepted her choice, others are still not talking to her. At that point, do you feel criminal,” he asks. You are naked when you go to the bathroom, or when you change clothes. “If people don’t like it or feel offended, they can avert their gaze.” He recently clicked an unclad model in a “deserted mountain area” as he wanted to show that it is fine to be naked outdoors just as it is in the bedroom. “If my page is banned again, I will make another one,” says Banerjee. Banerjee’s Instagram page has been pulled down twice and Yogarwa recently made her fourth handle. In a country where Ranveer Singh’s bum-baring photoshoot has caused a furore, it is not easy to create nude art. “But I am happy and proud to put my face to my work,” he says. Banerjee points out that most photographers still shoot nudes clandestinely - they work with aliases - because they don’t want their family and professional life to get affected. Moreover, viewers appreciate their work,” says the 28-year-old. Now, every city has two or three nude photographers who are trying this art form and sharing their work online. “I am sure photographers must have been shooting nudes but they were not coming out with their work. Ten years ago, when Kolkata-based photographer Rikrivu Banerjee started putting the nude portraits he shot on Instagram, there were barely five or six Indian photographers who were open about clicking people in an unclad state. I could not understand why we have to always sexualise the body,” says the Bengaluru resident who also clicks naked self-portraits.ĭARE TO BARE: Nude model and yoga instructor Yogarwa feels if people see more skin, they will get used to it. “During fashion shows and shoots, I saw the body being hypersexualised. Yogarwa, who first posed naked in 2019, does at least one shoot a week to allow a photographer to capture her bare body through his lens. Though born into a conservative family where she was not even allowed to wear shorts, the 38-year-old former fashion model feels extremely comfortable without clothes. Yogarwa is as passionate about teaching asanas as she is about her ‘second job’ as a nude muse. Yogarwa and TheDannyGuy belong to a small but growing community of Indians - mostly photographers, art aficionados and models - who are trying to normalise nudity through art, albeit discreetly. The photographers, who usually capture slithering snakes and bustling beehives, were attending a ‘nude art’ workshop conducted by a photographer who calls himself ‘TheDannyGuy’ and a nude model and yoga instructor who goes by the name ‘Yogarwa’. Here, they spent six hours trying to capture the contours of two naked women striking various poses based on their polite requests. A motley group of five nature and wildlife photographers ‘worked’ inside a studio in Bengaluru rather than outdoors this Tuesday. Ranveer Singh’s bum-baring shoot may have caused a stir but a bunch of artists is quietly trying to normalise nudity through their pictures.
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